A device for rotating a liquid container is known. (See U.S. Pat. No. 3,341,184) The device includes an open-top, cup-shaped, glass container or tumbler which may be filled with a liquid and which has a bottom base or basewall with a downwardly-depending central boss on which the container can be rotated and a peripheral rim or boss on which the tumbler may rest.
A disadvantage of this known device is that it is incapable of affording sufficient and adequate prolonged rotation of the liquid container. Moreover, the device is relatively “heavily” tilted to one side thus causing the lateral lug to exert significant frictional pressure on the bearing surface on which the liquid container is rotating. The resulting significant drag disadvantageously causes the liquid container to stop.
It is also a disadvantage of the known device that it spins like a top, i.e., using the gyroscopic principle that imparts (as is known from the fundamentals of physics) high speed rotation of the device and, therefore, high probability of the liquid contents splashing from the device. Furthermore, the known device is rotatably supported on the support surface solely by its central lug, while its peripheral rim is not in contact with the planar support surface during rotation. The peripheral rim is required to balance the device when it comes to a stop and when at rest. The device at rest is in a relatively “slightly” tilted position supported on the support surface by its central lug and peripheral rim. In this position, the device does not spin.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a device for the rotation of items which, through structural modifications and specific ratios of the basewall dimensions, prevent excessive tilting of the device and prolongs the basewall and, in turn, the container's rotation.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a device for the rotation of objects at low speeds, which has specific ratios of the basewall structural components' dimensions to enable slow rotation of the device in a “slightly” tilted position supported by both a central and at least one lateral bearing lug, since this device spins without using the gyroscopic principle that allows the above known conventional device (U.S. Pat. No. 3,341,184) to rotate at higher speeds in an upright position.